Glantz: Silencing the critics

You’re going on vacation, so you grab something new and different to read. It’s a natural instinct. Human nature — like staying to the left when the sign says “lane ends, merge right” or putting your brain on auto-cheer for a media-created underdog.

So, when we were stocking up on supplies for a recent weekend getaway in Lambertville-New Hope, a special edition of Rolling Stone magazine caught my eye.

Not only was it not about Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars, but it was all about the man through whom all lyrics flow, the greatest songwriter of all time — Bob Dylan.

Overall, a pretty intriguing read, featuring interviews from different stages of his illustrious career of putting people in their pathetic places, except one known G2 danger zone.

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You can now begin playing “I Should Have Known Better” by The Beatles as we continue.

A group of self-proclaimed critics, drawn from the same gene pool that puts Isaac Hayes in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and keeps Warren Zevon out, teamed up to list Dylan’s 100 greatest songs.

Opinions are like excuses, everybody has one, but there is no excuse for this glaring example of being blatantly elitist.

You can see where this is going.

As Dylan once put it, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” (or to tell us when it’s allegedly going to snow).

While it doesn’t have to be a generic best-of litany, devoid of deep album gem and rarities, you can’t tell me a list of Dylan’s top songs should be taken seriously when it is missing the song that put him into public consciousness, “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and full it up with bootleg ditties.

Fortunately, you have me to brush the critics aside and offer a more expert opinion of the topic.

What follows is are lists of my Big 5 and their Top 10 songs (quote marks eliminated from song titles to stave off monotony). It’s not an easy job, taking the best of the best and pairing down their hundreds of superlative songs to a list of 10, but it’s easier than preaching sense to the senseless on gun control and global warming.